Recycling waste carbon fibers for solar-driven clean water production by one-step electrochemical process

• Published in: Separation and purification technology 2024-12, Vol.351, p.128019, Article 128019
• Main Authors: Li, Longxin, Su, Yuqing, Jin, Beichen, Yu, Zhen, Cheng, Shaoan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Electrochemical exfoliation and deposition; Graphene oxide; Solar-driven interfacial evaporation; Waste carbon fibers; Wastewater treatment
• ISSN: 1383-5866
• DOI: 10.1016/j.seppur.2024.128019

•One-step electrochemical way processes waste carbon fiber to photothermal materials.•Reduced graphene oxide coated stainless steel felt (rGO-SS) is prepared.•rGO-SS enables a stable evaporation rate of 1.35 kg m−2 h−1 in actual wastewater.•3D evaporator based on rGO-SS achieves a high evaporation rate of 16.88 kg m−2 h−1. Waste carbon fibers (WCF), as a co-product of carbon-based textile material, presented a high recycling value. However, it is difficult to utilize the short carbon fibers by traditional process, recycling and using these WCF effectively has thus attracted increasing attention. Herein, we propose a novel strategy that utilizes simultaneous electrochemical exfoliation and deposition processes to convert WCF into photothermal materials. Stainless steel felt (SS) was selected as the substrate to verify this strategy. Through this strategy, the reduced graphene oxide-coated SS (rGO-SS) was obtained. The 2D solar-driven interfacial evaporator based on rGO-SS enabled stable evaporation in actual wastewater with an excellent rate of 1.44 ∼ 1.50 kg m−2 h−1  under 1 sun. Additionally, by constructing a 3D evaporation structure, rGO-SS performed a high evaporation rate of ∼16.88 kg m−2 h−1  under 1 sun. Finally, this work proposes a novel method for the waste carbon fibers and gives new insights into fabricating a novel solar-driven interfacial evaporator.